When Logan Silk was eight years old, doctors told his family they didn't know how his younger brother Patrick would survive the week.
Two years his junior, Patrick has a complex series of kidney, liver and spleen conditions and was hospitalised with multiple life-threatening complications.
"There was nothing we as individuals, nothing we as a family, could have done," the now 20-year-old Logan, based in Melbourne, tells AAP.
"It was all in the hands of the medical system."
As long as he can remember, Logan has cared for his brother and mother, who also has chronic kidney disease and fatigue syndrome.
By primary school, he was helping manage medical emergencies, speaking with paramedics and taking on household responsibilities.
Homework and social events came second to whatever was on the "family medical calendar" that day, he says.
Like many young carers, it took him years to realise there was a name for what he was doing.
"I remember a very young me having conversations with friends and suddenly discovering that looking after your mum and brother and having to chat with paramedics at your house once every few weeks wasn't exactly a shared, universal experience," he says.
It was only after connecting with support networks that he realised there were other young carers like him.
As of 2022, there were an estimated 391,300 young carers nationwide, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Aged younger than 25, the cohort provides unpaid care for a family member with disability, illness, addiction or age-related conditions.
A new survey by youth carer support organisation Little Dreamers Australia found many were struggling financially, emotionally and academically.
Canvassing 267 young carers aged four to 25, it found more than a third missed school every week because of their caring responsibilities.
Almost seven in 10 said their grades were affected, while more than a third used their own money to pay for medication, groceries and transport.
Many also reported anxiety, chronic stress and isolation linked to the uncertainty of caring responsibilities.
It is a pattern Little Dreamers chief executive Madeleine Buchner knows well.
Based in Melbourne, she founded the organisation at 16 after a childhood spent supporting her brother and mother, who both have chronic health conditions.
She balanced school and work with administering prescriptions, emotional support and medical appointments.
"For me, it was very much not knowing what I would wake up to each day," she says.
"Some days, my brother was fine and would go to school. Other days, he might have had a seizure in the middle of the night."
Ms Buchner says many children don't recognise themselves as carers because the responsibilities feel normal within their families.
That often leaves schools as the first place where warning signs such as exhaustion, repeated absences or disengagement become visible.
But without proper training, teachers can easily mistake those signs for behavioural problems, she says.
Carers Australia chief executive Joanna Cave says better recognition across schools, health care and government systems would significantly improve outcomes for young carers.
She says ideally, caring responsibilities should be identified when children enrol at school and reviewed regularly as circumstances change.
"Some kids aren't carers when they start their schooling and become carers, and other kids might be carers for some of the time but not all of the time," Ms Cave says.
Beyond the classroom, the federal government provides support including the Carer Gateway and the Young Carer Bursary program, which provides grants of almost $4000 a year.
It helps students pay for essentials such as laptops, uniforms and transport costs, but many eligible young carers miss out because funding is limited.
Ms Cave, whose organisation administers the bursaries, says demand far exceeds supply.
"There are 400,000 young carers and the bursary caps out at about 1600 of them," she says.
"It's oversubscribed every single year."
Advocates are also pushing for government services to be redesigned with young carers in mind, arguing many systems still assume adults are managing family care.
For Logan, discovering he is part of a wider community has been "monumental".
Now, he wants broader recognition of young carers across mainstream services.
"The one support I really wish young carers had access to was wider recognition throughout other services," he says.
"There's just no real recognition outside of dedicated organisations, and I think that's the one support that really needs to be in place."
Being so busy supporting his family, he doesn't have much time to think about his future.
He likes helping people but he's ambivalent about being directly involved in caregiving as it's already such a big part of his life.
Supporting young carers, however, holds a certain appeal.
"Everyone needs support in one way or another," he says.
"I'd love to be able to work with other young carers and support them through their journeys."
